Google Sketchup tips & discussion

[JoeHarris]

Did you do those great detailed drawings using the free version of SketchUp or something else?

SketchUp is seriously undervalued, I use it all the time at work so if you have any queries I would be more than happy to help - I don't feel I can give back much on this forum as yet so anything I can do to help... With the scaling issue - if you want to scale accurately - take a dimension on the model you want to scale (say this is 1423.1mm) you know that this actually needs to be 50mm, divide 50 by 1423.1 = 0.03514. Now grab all of the element you want to scale and click the scale tool, then after you click on one of the green grips that appear, enter 0.03514 - hit Enter and hey presto it is bang on 50mm. Hope that helps...

Also I can't stress enough how useful groups and components are, they allow you to change multiple elements at once and isolate elements you are working on - plus when you enter a group by double clicking, go to View>component edit>hide rest of model to fully isolate the element so you can work on a part that would otherwise be hidden - can be a life saver some times! (hope i'm not teaching you to suck eggs but someone is bound to find that tip useful.)

Iwant1 - looks like a good build log beginning here - watching with interest as not a million miles away from what I'm trying to build; mine I fear may take a long while though (due mainly to funds but also a distinct lack of time!)